Railroad Pass, , usually known locally as Railway Pass, is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

in the

Pacific Ranges The Pacific Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains portion of the Pacific Cordillera. Located entirely within British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada, they run northwest from the lower stretches of the Fraser River to B ...

of the

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains () are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the British Columbia Coast, Coast of British Columbia sout ...

in southwestern

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Traversed by a seasonal dirt road known as the Hurley Main and sometimes also referred to therefore as Hurley Pass, the pass connects the Pemberton Meadows area of the upper valley of the

Lillooet River The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...

, via Railroad Creek, to the uppermost reaches of the Hurley River, the main south fork of the Bridge River which the Hurley joins at the settlement of Gold Bridge. Railroad Pass gets its name from its potential as a possible route for a railway through the Coast Mountains although no formal record of such a survey exists.BCGNIS entry "Railroad Pass"
/ref> The Canadian Pacific Survey went through this area, but records only exist of survey parties attempting Ring Pass, at the head of the Lillooet River, and the divide between Meager Creek and Toba Inlet, as well as the southerly route since used by the Pacific Great Eastern, now a part of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

conglomerate. Railroad Pass was investigated in the 1980s as a possible extension route for BC Highway 99 as a "back door" for the Whistler resort in case of geotechnical emergencies that would isolate the resort (a more southerly route used by Cayoosh Pass was chosen). A group of peaks on the north side of the pass is called the Railroad Group and includes summit-names like

Locomotive Mountain Locomotive Mountain is a mountain summit located in the Railroad Group of the Coast Mountains, in the Pemberton Valley of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is situated northwest of Pemberton, east of Handcar Peak, and south of Fac ...

, Tender, Caboose, and Handcar Peak.

References

National Resources Canada Mapping Services

External links

* Mountain passes of British Columbia Bridge River Country Pemberton Valley Pacific Ranges {{cariboo-geo-stub